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Try a Maple Mojito, And Other Ways To Celebrate Winter With Maple Cocktails

I love real maple syrup, but to be perfectly honest, my repertoire is limited to pouring it over pancakes, and those delicious little maple-leaf sugar candies that melt on your tongue. Not to mention visiting sugar shacks every winter.

So it was a delicious surprise to hear that maple syrup can stand in for simple syrup in a number of cocktails – especially since I don’t always have sugar syrup on hand, but I do always have maple syrup.

For seventh generation "sugarmaker" Arnold Coombs, of Coombs Family Farms, it’s pretty obvious. His favorite maple cocktail is a maple mojito, replacing the simple syrup with maple syrup, and a bit heavy on the rum, because he likes his drinks on the strong side. For most drinks, including non-alcoholic shrubs and switchels, he likes to use Grade A “amber color, rich taste” maple, but anything with bourbon he prefers Grade A “dark color, robust taste.”

It's all Grade A now, graded instead from Very Dark Color and Strong Taste to Golden Color and ... [+] Delicate Taste.

Getty

In case you find that confusing, a few years back the USDA changed the way maple syrup is graded – Grade B, classically referring to the darker color and flavor syrup, has been eliminated –it’s all grade A now, with added descriptors based on flavor. The four classifications are now Golden Color and Delicate Taste, Amber Color and Rich Taste, Dark Color and Robust Taste (Formerly known as Grade B) and Very Dark Color and Strong Taste, which is generally only used commercially.

"For seven generations, my family has been sipping beverages made better with pure maple. So you could say I have a bit of a bias,” Coombs says. “There's nothing more festive than pure maple—rich amber or robust dark—in a holiday cocktail. Pure maple lends an earthier, more complex flavor that pairs so well with brandy, bourbon, rye or rum, in particular."

In addition to a maple mojito, eclipse the dreaded pumpkin spice in a nonalcoholic ginger maple switchel, and hot buttered maple rum. To make things even easier, earlier this year, Coombs Family Farms launched Maple Stream, pure maple syrup in a shelf stable can.

Here are a few ways to use maple syrup in cocktails this winter – or any time really.

Muddle orange and cherry in the bottom of an Old Fashioned glass with a half shot of Coombs Family Farms pure maple syrup. Fill glass with ice, add whiskey, and top with a splash of soda.

Hot Buttered Maple Rum

Combine one tsp Coombs Family Farms pure maple syrup, 1 tsp butter, and stick cinnamon, two cloves in a mug. Pour in dark rum and stir. Add boiling water and stir again; top with nutmeg and serve.

Zero-Proof Maple-Ginger Cider Switchel

Adapted from Bon Apétit, May 2015

This classic drink was popular in colonial times and was sometimes referred to “haymaker’s punch” as it was often given to thirsty farmers at haying time. Switchel is chock full of electrolytes and antioxidants, and it is also extremely refreshing. The base can be made ahead of time. Keep chilled, and stir well before each serving. It’s natural for the ginger to settle to the bottom.

Finely grate or pass ginger through a juicer (you should have about ⅓ cup). Combine ginger juice, vinegar, maple syrup, and lime juice in a large pitcher and stir until maple syrup is dissolved. Chill until cold.

To serve, dilute with water and pour switchel into ice-filled glasses; garnish with mint.

I'm a food and travel writer with deep connections in the wine and spirits industry. I’ve poured $1,000 tastes of wine with Kevin Zraly at Windows on the World, studied

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I'm a food and travel writer with deep connections in the wine and spirits industry. I’ve poured $1,000 tastes of wine with Kevin Zraly at Windows on the World, studied under Andrea Immer Robinson at the International Culinary Center and sampled Ferran Adria’s catering when he was first mulling closing El Bulli. While I can write about the best rosé wines in the world, top travel spots from Europe to China and New World single-malt whiskey with aplomb, my roots belong to New England. My dad once traded an old car for a dozen lobsters, and my grandmother’s whoopie pie recipe is a closely guarded family secret. I have written for Zagat restaurant guides and edited two books in the Great Restaurants of the World series, and am currently the restaurant critic for Northshore magazine, focused on the food scene north of Boston. My work has appeared in Forbes, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and the sadly defunct Executive Travel magazine.